[Sooga]

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So what can I do to keep my brain from atrophy?

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I'm to take a guess, and honestly I've never thought of this before, that learning poker or new forms of poker can probably help. Also having a career that challenges you to keep learning. Barring those, any other intellectual hobby can probably help.

But I don't know if crossword puzzles count. While they require thought, I don't know they really stimulate any kind of learning.

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I'm not a neurologist LDO, but I don't think that learning new things is even that important in re: to brain not atrophying. I think the important thing is just to keep your mind working. Doing crosswords, random math in your head (i.e. just adding numbers you see as you drive along or whatever), sudokus, whatever. I think anything you have to actually devote some real thought/logic to will keep your brain from going to mush.

I think another big key is just being curious about things in general, and thinking about why things are the way they are. Some of the students I have just make me sad because they don't question anything. They just want answers. I honestly think if I went through a whole school year and just taught completely random equations that made no sense, that 90% of my kids would just take it to be the truth and not even verify that what I was teaching them had any basis in truth.

I know personally I don't really learn a TON of new stuff all the time, but I definitely try to keep my brain working as often as I can.